This invention relates to evacuation devices for evacuating bedridden patients from a hospital or the like.
In the event of an emergency in a hospital or the like, when it is necessary to evacuate bedridden patients, considerable difficulty has been experienced in removing the bedridden patients from a floor of a hospital which is to be evacuated. Generally, it requires at least two members of the hospital staff to lift a bedridden patient from a bed and to position the patient on a rescue stretcher. Because of the large number of rescue stretchers which would be required to evacuate many hospitals, the cost involved in maintaining a stretcher for each bed would be exceedingly high.
U.K. Patent No. 1,536,191 discloses a rescue bag which can be used to rescue an injured or unconscious person. The rescue bag includes a base portion and a cover portion connected together by suitable slide fasteners. In one embodiment, the cover is attached to the base along a short portion of the side edge thereof. In another embodiment, the cover and base portion are split lengthwise from the lower end thereof. A securing harness is provided on the base portion which is used for the purposes of securing a patient thereon. This structure is a complex structure and it is not well suited for use in attempting to evacuate a bedridden patient because it is not designed to facilitate the sliding of the base portion under a patient that is lying on a bed.
German Patent No. 2,418,374 which issued to Manfred Kufahl. This patent discloses a structure in which a blanket is attached to a stretcher by straps that connect an edge of the blanket to the stretcher. The blanket is fitted with harness straps which serve to secure the patient with respect to the assembled blanket and stretcher.